PLACES

ZANDERNATIS - THE GOLDEN CITY

Gorin is instructed in the civilisation’s symbolic foundation and 3,000 year history. He also learns that while he has no memory of his own origins, everyone in Zandernatis the Golden City has total recall of all their previous lives. Even Hexard knows him only as “The New One, new in knowledge, knowing nothing but his given name”.

THE STORY

The Quest

7 months before Gorin’s arrival, the heir to the Winged Throne became the first Zandernation to leave the City’s confines in a thousand years, drawn to defy the Law after months of persistent dreams inciting him to find their source. His aging father charges “The New One” to find him and bring him home to fulfil his destiny.

THE EXCERPT

PLACES

ZANDERNATIS - THE GOLDEN CITY

Gorin is instructed in the civilisation’s symbolic foundation and 3,000 year history. He also learns that while he has no memory of his own origins, everyone in Zandernatis the Golden city has total recall of all their previous lives. Even Hexard knows him only as “The New One, new in knowledge, knowing nothing but his given name”.

THE STORY

The Quest

7 months before Gorin’s arrival, the heir to the Winged Throne became the first Zandernation to leave the City’s confines in a thousand years, drawn to defy the Law after months of persistent dreams inciting him to find their source. His aging father charges “The New One” to find him and bring him home to fulfil his destiny.

XIII - History, Legend, Prophecy

"From the Lords of Creation who were seemly to descend into this haven Garden globe wherein they could defend. From beyond unto the first of these unending days, this was set down to be the scheme that serves until the parting of the ways.”

Book of Magres, Aeon IV, Age VI, Chap. V vs. xix

From “The Song of Gorin” Stanzas 416-420

G
orin spent the next day in concentrated study of the ancient volumes, relieved only by a brief visit from Hexard who brought him some food in the early afternoon and promised to return at nightfall.

The books were indeed a mine of information about Zandernatis and the way it had developed, although the actual origins themselves were left cloaked in mystery. As had been suggested, Gorin did not try to read all three volumes in their entirety; instead he selected the parts he felt would be the most revealing, hoping this would allow him to build up a reasonable overview.

He began with the smallest of the three volumes, entitled “The Establishment of the Golden City in Paradise”. When he first opened it, he was at once struck by the book’s great age, for the heavy pages were dark and time-worn. The ancient script was not easy to decipher either, but once he had understood its main idiosyncrasies, he was able to get along well enough. However, he found the style of writing to be very archaic, especially at the beginning - so emphatic and flamboyant it sometimes appeared to be deliberately trying to obscure the meaning behind the words. He could not, for example, make anything of the dedication, if such it was, written on the title page:

“From the Lords of Creation who were seemly to descend
into this haven Garden globe wherein they could defend.
From beyond unto the first of these unending days,
this was set down to be the scheme
that serves until the parting of the ways.”

“Establishment of the Golden City” – “Prelude

Who were these “Lords of Creation” it referred to? And what were “the ways” that had parted? There was no clue in the rest of the book, mostly given over to describing the design of the City, accompanied by detailed plans of its main monuments. He pored over the drawings of the Palace and found, without any difficulty, the rooms beneath the Silver Tower now occupied by Hexard. He also identified the vast gallery they had crossed on their way to the tower and saw how it led to the principal state-rooms where the King now held his audiences. Judging by the plans, they appeared to be very impressive indeed and Gorin wondered if he would ever get the chance of seeing them for himself.

Apart from the plans and architectural descriptions, there was a second part to the book which was even more intriguing. It seemed to be referring to the actual work of construction, but was couched in such vague terms that nothing certain could be made of it. One passage in particular drew his attention. He read it over and over again, trying to work out what it meant before deciding he would have to give up if he wanted to have sufficient time for the other two, considerably larger, volumes. Yet even after laying it aside he found he could not keep it out of his thoughts, and on the night of the first day he fell asleep with its words still running through his mind:

“In the wildness swam the multifaceted crystals of peace; in the maelstrom of creation were the thousand laws springing from one. So in the turn of all the million tasks there came to rest the choice upon this great flatness, forested and bare, raised and levelled by the bending of the powers summoned to the aid of those Protectors who came to give their art. In the emerging of this mountain, gold was forged from deep within the very heart of Earth. Then rose the stones and those transported from afar to be established as this great perfection built to live beyond eternity. So grew the seed of homage, the gift that brought this race unto the point from which they could rise up themselves to be worthy also of the strength they saw about them in the skies. The City rose to be the jewel of all the world, set here in this sweet glade of Paradise. It was to be, and is, the very soul of those beloved children who seek their way among the mortal paths of living. And it belongs to them.”